Tales From The Cellar

To help you decide now whether to read on, this is not a post about Rosés – one has been done by a colleague already, and we will have more posts and tastings in the near future to help you decide which of the 2012 Rosés you love the most. There will also not be a recommendation involved; for better or worse, I am happy to give those throughout the working day and will do so again here shortly.

So what’s this all about? It’s about asking your indulgence, which is really what any blog post is, a request to indulge a bit of public mind-speaking. So please indulge me on some thoughts relating to events in Boston two days ago.

To an unflattering degree I look forward to my twenty minutes of drive-time updating on the goings-on in the world of sport. Listening to “expert opinions” distracts me from expressing a candid evaluation of my fellow commuters’ driving skills and can be entertaining and occasionally even illuminating. Such was not the case on Tuesday. No matter where I turned the discussion was about the role of sports and entertainment in the face of tragedy and that such tragedies remind us that it’s only games and entertainment that the speakers have made a career out of evaluating and deeming relevant. But in the end, the ability of a keen-eyed young man to hit a ball over a fence slides down the totem pole of relevancy when some hearts suddenly stop and others are broken.

Or does it? Can sports and entertainment provide solace to the grieving in their continuation? Are they a useful continuation of normalcy, an attempt to counterbalance a brutal disruption of everyday life?

As I pondered these questions while getting closer to the store, the question came to me – what about the fermented grape juice that is my working life? Some of it is useful, some will enhance food and company, and some is, by the combined efforts of nature and man, an intricate expression of place that smells and tastes like many things but not grape juice. But ultimately, when faced with events like those in Boston, it is all really just grape juice whose importance is made clear by contrast. Or is it? In the aftermath of Loma Prieta, it is said that the patrons at Chez Panisse that night, after the shaking stopped, shook hands all around and ordered some of the rarer bottles on the list. So perhaps there is a place for grape juice in troubling times, particulars are for the next rendition, in the meantime re-send your thoughts and prayers to those with broken limbs and hearts.

Matt S., Beltramo’s Assistant Mangaer

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on Wednesday, April 17th, 2013 at 8:54 pm and is filed under News.
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